According to financial expert and author Dave Ramsey, “A goal without a plan is just a dream.” Most of us have dreams of things we would like to accomplish, and many of us even make plans and set goals. But the big question is: “How do I actually achieve my goals?” “How do I get beyond the dream and the plans to reach my goals?” Well, if I knew the answer to those questions, I might be as famous and as wealthy as Dave Ramsey, but alas, I’m don’t and I’m not. But I do have a pretty good track record for setting goals in my own personal life and achieving them. So I thought it would be fun to think about how to do that and see what else is out here that might help us along the way.

One of the biggest (and most time consuming) goals that I set for myself was many years ago when I decided to return to college as a mom of four kiddos, ranging in age from 3 – 15. “Just” being a mom and a homemaker was my most important role in life, and that was the way I wanted it. But after being a stay-at-home mom for 15 years, I thought perhaps it was an OK time to step out a bit and return to college to see if I could do it. So I did! And I was actually pretty good at all that academic stuff after all those years of being away from a classroom.

I will admit it was rather intimidating, but I was determined. So I set a goal and made a plan. Each semester I had to revise the plan a bit to accommodate the needs of my family and my class schedule – I tried to take classes only during the hours that my children were in school – so it took a bit of juggling, but it all worked out. I had a dream . . . I needed to prove to myself that I could do this thing that seemed so overwhelming to me as a ordinary wife and mama. Or I needed to figure out that I couldn’t do it, but that really wasn’t an option. I was determined to figure it out!

As it turned out, I did quite well and completed an undergraduate degree in Biblical Studies with a minor in English. That was great! But by that time, of course, my children were older and they were becoming a bit more independent, and along with a few other life changes, I decided to tackle a second degree in my field of interest: ancient and Biblical history. I was determined to discover the answer to some things that I had been pondering for many years (of course, getting an education only shows you how much you STILL don’t know!) so I pursued a second undergraduate degree in Classical Studies and Philosophy. After two more years of planning and scheduling . . . done!

You don’t have to start on January 1st! You can get going on making a plan to achieve your goals anyday at all!

And by then, I was hooked on the whole process of learning about times, people, places, and wisdom of ages gone by – so I set a goal to get a graduate degree. And so I did. I was fascinated with the history of the Christian church and discovered so much about how we came from the days of Jesus walking by the Sea of Galilee with His disciples, admonishing them to “love one another” and “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind,” to the days when we often find it difficult to discover two Christians who agree with one another about much of anything. I was curious, I guess.

Anyway, the point is, I never could have accomplished those goals without planning. A LOT of planning. Back in those days I planned everything I needed to do, every hour of each day . . . to make sure I didn’t forget something! I had a pretty simple planner (back then there wasn’t a lot of the fancy, adorable stuff that we have now days), so I just used a small three-ring binder and wrote down my To Do list each day. I also added one page each week where I had each day of the week written down and the weekly activities written down in the time slots so I could plan around them. This was really helpful because I could see at a glance where I had blocks of time available for any “extra” stuff like doctor or dentist appointments, or other important events.

So I know how important it is to make plans if you want to achieve your goals. You can dream all day (which is a lot of fun!), but if you don’t put one foot in front of the other, you will never arrive at your dreamed-of destination. And for me, the first step is to make a plan by writing it down and then rolling up my sleeves and tell myself to “Just Do It!” Then I get to check it off the list!

Some of these beautiful daily planner pages that are available online for FREE even include menu plans, errands and phone calls to make, and even a place to keep track of how much water you drink each day! Yay! I just would write down the word WATER and then put little check marks beside it to keep track. This way is so much more creative and fun! If you have been thinking about getting started on following your dreams, why not start by setting a goal and making a plan. You’ll get there much faster than if you just keep dreaming about it! Here are a few amazing and creative planners that I have discovered that you can print out for FREE. If you visit any of these bloggers, be sure to tell them that Vintage Mama sent you!

Have fun and be sure to stop by and let me know how you are doing on following your dreams. Can’t wait to hear from you!

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If you’ve ever watched an episode of “Hoarders” you will see how tragic it can be for people when they become so overwhelmed with stuff and clutter that they (literally!) cannot walk from one room of their house to another. Even in the midst of their misery, some people are attached to their things to the point of finding it heart-wrenching to part with stuff that appears to an onlooker to have little or no value, certainly not benefit, and in some cases actually detrimental to a person’s mental and physical health.

Since I’ve always felt naturally inclined in the direction of “tidying up,” but frequently found myself being treated like a “neat freak” (and not always kindly!), it was quite curious to me to discover this new-fangled obsession with Marie Kondo’s book and now a TV series about “tidying up.” Hooray! I thought. Maybe now I won’t feel like such a weirdo! So I decided to take a look at her approach to making peace with our surroundings. Because, after all, that is how I’ve seen this business of “tidying up” all of my life.

It’s not about having a big, fancy, expensive house. I grew up in a very modest (actually less than that) little lake cottage where we had one source of heat in the winter which was right in the middle of the house, surrounded by two tiny bedrooms, a bathroom, and a kitchen. There was no central air conditioning, plain wooden floors, and no insulation in the walls. One a cold winter morning I would wake up with my blankets covered with a bit of frost and frozen to the wall. But no matter . . . . my mother kept our little cottage clean and tidy. Even when I hated having to do the dishes, sweep the floor, dust the old broken down furniture, scrub that little old-fashioned bathroom, and fold the laundry, I guess I learned to appreciate the peace (and perhaps even joy!) that comes from having our little world orderly.

If you haven’t read “Tidying Up” or seen the Netflix series, you might find it interesting. In an article I found at CNET: “Kondo’s goal is not to design the perfect home — Kondo couldn’t care less what color someone’s walls are — it’s to seek out and increase the tranquility in one’s space and amongst one’s things. It imagines the home as a sanctuary, rather than a dream house.” You can make peace with your home, no matter where you live or what kind of house you live in. It could be an apartment, a rental house, a dorm room . . . anywhere you live, you can make it a place of refuge and tranquility. Even if you only have a corner of a room, you can make it yours.

At first glance this might seem counter-intuitive in this day and age when we all are bombarded day and night with bright shiny objects demanding our attention: “BUY ME!” and “BUY MORE” and “SALE! SALE! SALE!” Everywhere we turn we are encouraged to buy the latest, greatest, newest, most fashionable “this and that,” and of course all of the newest, greatest, and most fashionable stuff is different from one season to the next. So whatever great, amazing, and hottest thing you bought last month is probably really old and boring by now. So BUY MORE!

According to the article from CNET: “Tidying Up” is not your average American phenomenon. Deceptively innocuous, it is ushering an array of un-American philosophies to the American television mainstream: declutter your life, be thankful for the home you have, practice gratitude. In a country filled with overstuffed garages and increasingly excessive home makeover shows — think “Fixer Upper,” or “Extreme Home Makeover,” or even “Hoarders” — “Tidying Up” preaches humility, and the idea that we should tidy our homes to show ourselves and our living spaces respect.”

So whether you want to follow Marie Kondo on a journey of “Tidying Up,” or if you just want to jump in and do it the old-fashioned way, tidying up is a good way to make peace with your home. Last year we had a flood in our laundry room. It was a mess! But in the end, it pushed us to replace some old flooring and carpeting that we were planning to do, but just hadn’t gotten around to it. Actually, we didn’t have the money to do it, so when the flood destroyed a bunch of stuff, our insurance covered the cost of some of the renovations we already had planned. In the end it was a good thing, but while we were in the middle of fixing stuff, it was miserable.

Now we have a few more home improvement projects we want to tackle this spring, so for now I’m focusing on making sure that I tackle the tidying up projects that need my attention so that we’ll be ready for the big projects. This week, the pantry cupboard needs to be reorganized. It’s a baby step, but it is a step in the right direction. How about you? Have you tried “Tidying Up,” or do you just do what I do and roll up my sleeves and tidy up . . . I can’t quite figure out whether some of this stuff “sparks joy” or not. Like noodles. Or underwear. Or dish soap. I guess you could say that stuff “sparks joy” so I guess I better keep a few noodles, underwear, and dish soap. And probably socks. Other than that, I’ll let you know. I would love to hear about your “tidying up” journey, that is if you decide to start down that path. It will be interesting!

After the busyness and excitement of the Christmas holiday and the New Year’s Eve celebrations, it is suddenly winter. It is cold and blustery with wind whipping the brittle branches in the steel gray skies. Our windows are covered with misty fog on a winter morning, and give way to frosty etchings on even colder winter nights. It is easy to become weary of the bleakness of bitter winter days, one after another, shrouding our world in shades of gray.

Some of us even experience unpleasant physical symptoms of going days, and weeks, and finally months with limited sunlight. That is why it is so important to prepare for these potentially difficult days ahead and make sure we can enjoy our winter days at home. Let’s get cozy and brighten up our homes to chase away the chill of winter.

After all, it is a New Year so I think we should look forward to the coming days with anticipation and joy!

I know that is easier said than done for most of us, especially depending on our specific circumstances and personalities. If you are by nature a “home body” but you have to go outside everyday to drive to a job, that is one kind of challenge on a particularly miserable winter day. On the other hand, if you are a person who loves to be out and about, and you get snowed in or there is ice on the roads, that is another level of misery in the cold weather months.

But if we make a bit of effort to create a cozy, inviting, peaceful, and restful place in our home, then whether we get to stay home or have to stay home, or if we get to go out and about or have to get out in the blustery weather, at least we will have place of refuge no matter the weather.

One of my goals in this new year, starting right now at the beginning of January, is to focus on creating a peaceful, cozy home where my family can relax and regroup after busy days of work and school. Of course, I have always TRIED to do that, and some days I am more successful than on other days . . . . like yesterday when no matter how hard I tried or how much I planned, things just didn’t turn out exactly the way I had hoped.

When the phone rings right in the middle of a project that has a looming deadline; when the car breaks down and needs to be taken in for repairs (requiring a major shift in the day’s previously scheduled events); or when there is a semi-emergency trip to the dentist; or any number of other interruptions – it is hard to stay on task. That’s why we need to just “roll with it” when those kinds of things happen.

But in between those moments of crisis or chaos that enter into all of our lives on a fairly regular basis, my goal is to make the most of those times when I have the opportunity to bring a sense of calm, peaceful, restful atmosphere to my home. So I will be posting different ideas that I try out as I discover new inspiration for finding joy in the midst of winter days at home.

And even if you have to leave your home every day to go to a job (I’m so grateful to be able to work from home, but not everyone has that option), there are still moments and small ways that you can invite the blessings of a simpler, quieter way to do life. Let’s work on that together! I think we all could use a little bit of joy and peace in our days, don’t you? I hope you will join me on this journey into the new year, seeking the peace that God can bring to our hearts and our homes.

Please join us for this week’s Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop and Linky Party! It’s a great place to connect with other bloggers and discover creative inspiration for your home and family. Hope to see you there!

I’ve been reading several articles recently about how blogging has changed over the course of the past several years, and it seems to me that it might be time to re-evaluate my blogging goals. How about you? Are you still blogging on a regular basis and finding that things are dramatically different out here in the blogosphere than they were ever just two years ago? I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic.

My blogging journey started a long time ago . . . it was probably in the late 90s or early 2000s . . . when a friend of mine mentioned, quite casually as we were chatting one day, that he had just finished writing a “blog.” Well, what the heck is that? I asked with feigned interest. My recollection of that conversation is that I really didn’t care so much about what a “blog” was as much as I was contemplating some writing projects and we were just talking about writing opportunities in general. Much to my surprise, “blogging” was becoming a pretty popular way for aspiring writers to put their words down (somewhere) in black and white. Suddenly, I was interested in finding out what a “blog” was!

I started simply enough with a free blog site where I wrote posts about our adoption journey, our beautiful girls, our home projects, and my sewing projects. Back then I blogged under the brand name of mamas*little*treasures which was the name of my handcrafted, boutique children’s clothing designs that I sold in my Etsy shop by the same name. That was fun! As a stay-at-home mom of our two young daughters, I was doing several things that I love the most: raising our girls, sewing for them, and writing. I even had modest success with that Etsy shop, designing and creating custom boutique clothing that sold rather quickly to young moms who wanted to dress their tots in unique, one-of-a-kind outfits.

It was nothing (so it seemed) for some of these moms to pay $200 – $250 for a three piece outfit that I had designed and created in my little sewing room. That was quite amazing to me, because where I came from, the only people who wore “home made” clothes were those of us who were too poor to buy brand-new outfits from the store. But that, of course, is why I learned to sew at such a young age and so by the time I discovered this market for (now called) “hand-crafted” children’s clothing, I was quite experienced at this kind of sewing. And apparently I had a good eye for design because my creations sold enough that I finally had to stop making things for that Etsy shop . . . I couldn’t make them fast enough, and I was exhausted and stressed from trying to make little outfits that might take anywhere from 15 – 20 hours each.

With all those ruffles and other details (and me being somewhat of a perfectionist when it comes to my sewing projects), I would get orders for six or seven of the same design and then I would find myself working half the night long, afraid of making a mistake (which of course inevitably led to making mistakes), and realizing that I was not enjoying my little “hobby” much at all. I began to limit the designs I made available in that Etsy shop, and decided to stop altogether when the girls were a bit older and we made a major cross-country move. That’s when my blogging also picked up and I changed my focus.

Over the next few years, as the girls grew up and my time was diverted to their activities (and for a while I worked away from home), my blogging really went by the wayside. Eventually, I picked it up again, this time with a renewed interest in blogging about my spiritual journey and life as an “older mama” – thus began my blogging home at Vintage Mama’s Cottage. Since that time I have transitioned somewhat again to focus primarily on home and family, especially with an emphasis on creative inspiration for women in their homes. However . . . . here’s where we are now in the world of blogging:

It appears that there are so many changes in technology as well as ecommerce and the need for a simple blogger-mama to know detailed and in-depth things like SEO and lots of other techy stuff, that it has become almost impossible to be “successful” at blogging unless you choose to make it your full-time job. Which I don’t want to do. So now I guess I need to define for myself what a “successful blog” looks like. Here are a few things that I discovered while researching this topic a bit . . .

According to Singlegrain, part of the evolution of blogging was movement from hobby / special interest writing to monetizing blogs which became “serious business”:

By the mid to late 2000s, blogs grew to represent groups unified along common interests or states of life. Mommy bloggers, sports blogger, political bloggers, entertainment gossip, tech bloggers, comic books—you name the interest, a blog community (not a single blog, but entire circles of content creators and discussion leaders) would spring up. It became fairly common for many bloggers to monetize their blogs successfully (relatively). It went from special interest to serious business.

Then, when “microblogging” was introduced, along with the uptick in social media activity, blogging changed again:

With the advent of Twitter, Facebook, and other microblogging services such as Tumblr and Posterous, many blog networks have seen their communities drawn away from the message boards and comment sections—people who were in the audience now find themselves key contributors. It’s not just that everybody has a blog: everyone has three or four online presences that could be technically classified as blogs.

There is still a place for blogs that create or aggregate compelling, interesting, entertaining content. But they now have to compete in an ever-changing blogosphere in which everyone fancies themselves content creators.

So . . . like so many other things in life, what was once a fun, sometimes profitable, but always just a great way to connect with other people who share similar interests, has now become a situation where we find ourselves competing for readers, dollars, prestige, and influence. And if we aren’t any of those things, and really don’t want to be any of those things, then I’m wondering what is the point of continuing to be a blogger? Especially if what one really wanted to do in the first place is be a writer / creator / maker / designer and not so much a tech guru . . . . what is a person to do in this era of “super bloggers” when all we to do is be kind of creative?

So, that’s my question for today. I am asking myself, and I would love to hear your input, why should I keep doing this every week? There is much more on my mind and in my heart about this topic, but as the research has suggested, people rarely read a lengthy blog post anyway, so I’ll leave this for a few days and see what comes to mind as I am trying to decide what direction to go next with this writing / blogging journey. Thanks for stopping by to visit me here at Vintage Mama’s Cottage!

This morning, as I attempted to start work, I opened my email and once again was faced with reality. I have over 2,ooo emails that need my attention. And that is just one of my email accounts. There have been times when I’ve had even more than that (LOTS more!) and I managed to clean up my inbox, but who has the time to do that every few weeks? Do you keep your inbox cleaned up on a regular basis? Well, if you do, I’m impressed! I simply can’t keep up with it. So once again I find myself worrying about all of the people who have emailed me, with messages frequently arriving when I am not working (I do take a day off occasionally!), or when I’m out of town, or when I’m sick and can’t even bear to look at the computer screen. That’s when it happens . . . .

When I finally get back to work after a short time away from the computer, I am faced with an overflowing inbox, often with important messages that I really do want to read and I really do want to reply to. Of course, there are always the piles and piles of “junk mail” that could just be deleted – if I even had time to do that! Feeling overwhelmed with hundreds of unread emails gives me a bit of anxiety and a sense of guilt that I cannot, I simply cannot, reply to any of those messages, not even the important ones RIGHT NOW. Especially if I’ve been away from work for a day or two, by then I have a million and one other things that are requiring my attention. Things like writing, editing, and publishing deadlines, where real people are really expecting me to do something by a specified time. So, once again, off I go to work on the projects that are looming over my ever-ticking clock in my brain, counting down the days, hours, and minutes until the final deadline arrives. That sounds rather ominous!

Today as I was waiting for one of my students to “arrive” in our online classroom, and feeling rather overwhelmed (again!) with all of the unanswered emails that I just can’t keep up with, I decided to take action! Since I have to sit here and wait anyway (of course there are about a million other things I COULD work on), I thought it would be a good time to see if I could figure out a solution to my dilemma. Even if I’m the only one who has this problem, I need to figure this out. And hopefully it might be helpful to someone else, as well. I’d love to hear your experience with an overflowing inbox . . . in your spare time, of course!

After reading a few other articles on the herculean task of taming my inbox, I found a few suggestions that seem manageable for me. At least this is a good place to start. I wanted actionable tasks that I could put on my To Do list and cross off once they were completed. Today I’m getting started! Here are a few ideaas that I found that might be helpful. At least, I’m going to give them a try.

1. UNSUBSCRIBE! I’ll admit I’ve tried this before, but somehow when I click on the “unsubscribe” button, it doesn’t always seem to “take.” Because the next time time I open that particular inbox, there they are again. According to an article on HubSpot:

“The easiest way to maintain inbox zero? Get less email. The very first step to achieve an emptier inbox is unsubscribing from every single email list that doesn’t provide you with value on a regular basis.

In fact, my recommendation is to unsubscribe from everything. Take a few days to let it sink in, and then re-subscribe only to the newsletters you really, truly miss. In this step, you might consider converting any daily digests you used to follow to weekly ones.

While unsubscribing manually from tens — hundreds? — of newsletters one by one sounds tedious, there are tools out there that can help you do it in just a few clicks. Unroll.me is my personal favorite: It’s a free tool that lets you mass unsubscribe from all the newsletters you don’t read. You can either unsubscribe from everything at once (my recommendation), or you can pick and choose.”

2. ARCHIVE! This is one that I’ve tried, as well, but I still can’t seem to keep up. I guess I need to just devote a block of time to get myself organized. Here’s some useful information from an article on Boomerang entitled, “6 Simple Steps to Get (and Keep) Your Inbox Under Control.”

“This is a BIG step, but we promise that you’ll feel a huge load off of your shoulders after you complete this one. Start by archiving all emails that are older than 30 days without reviewing them. Remember, you’re not deleting them, you’re only moving them out of your inbox into another folder. All of your emails are still there. If you’re on Gmail you can verify this by clicking on the folder called ‘All Mail.’ If you need to find something, you can always search for it. Go through the remaining emails over the next few days, taking them on in batches – respond (and archive), delete, or archive each of them.

Note: Archiving has a slightly different meaning in Outlook. In Outlook, it’s a term used for backup and reducing data file size. Outlook users can achieve the Gmail-like version of archiving by creating a new folder called “Old Mail” or “Done” and moving all of your old mail to this folder.”

3. ORGANIZE! Again, there will be a bit of a time investment for this one, but it sure will be nice to open my inbox and not have to sort through a thousand or more emails to find the ONE that I need. I have a bunch of folders for the different projects that I work on regularly, but I frequently get so far behind that I simply don’t slow down long enough to “file” the emails I need to keep in their proper folders, so I keep stumbling over them. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Stop it! Here’s what Entrepreneur.com has to say about this task:

“Although a majority of emails can be deleted, you’ll most likely want to retain messages related to key aspects of your business. Correspondence between clients, colleagues and employees can help clarify any miscommunications. Most email programs let users mark messages with specific labels or categories.

Prioritize, group, sort and file messages to keep your inbox organized. The better your filing system, the easier it will be to locate specific emails when you need them. Create parent categories for broad subjects such as the following: clients, projects and finances.”

4. STOP IT! Back in the day when our phones were attached to the wall and there was a cord that limited our mobility while using said phone . . . . most of us felt obligated to answer the silly thing every time it rang. Partly because we were curious about who would be calling (no caller ID then, either), and part of the motivation was because we felt that we “owed” that courtesy to whomever decided to pick up their end of the telephone line and interrupt us, no matter what we were doing. Eventually, when I had a houseful of little kids who could do more damage in a three minute phone call than a herd of feral cats climbing the living room curtains, I realized that what I was doing was probably just as important as whatever it was that the person on the other end of the telephone line was up to. So I stopped feeling obligated to answer the phone every time it rang.

Of course, I was still curious, but comforted myself with the fact that A.) if it was important they would call back, or 2.) it probably was someone I didn’t want to talk to anyway, or 3.) if it was an emergency, I would soon have a knock at my door informing me that my house was on fire. Or whatever. Now days we have caller ID (or “private” or “blocked” means I didn’t want to talk to you anyway) so we can decide if we want to answer the phone right this very minute or not. Or we can just turn the ringer off. Solved that problem!

But with emails, there still seems to be this strange obsession (or curiosity) that compels us to read and answer every single email. So just stop it! The article in HubSpot suggests that we change our thinking about our email inbox: “Part of maintaining a manageable inbox — and your sanity — is to change the way you think about email a little bit. Only you can decide what deserves your very limited time and attention. When it comes to email, understand that there’s simply no way you’ll be able to respond to every single email that arrives in your inbox, let alone read them all.

I love the way Merlin Mann puts it: “Stop thinking of emails like precious family heirlooms, and start treating ’em like pints of milk. Perishable, time-stamped milk that becomes a little less fresh every day until it smells kind of funny and just needs to be dumped. Believe me, there will always be more coming.”

So if you’re looking at an email and know in your heart of hearts you’re never going to respond to it, archive it. Better yet, delete it. As Mann says, “Trust your instincts, listen to them, and stop trying to be perfect.”

So, guess what’s on my To Do list today??? Along with several other projects, including writing, editing, publishing, and teaching deadlines, I am going to set my little timer on my phone (they really are good for SOME things!) for about 15 or 20 minutes and start cleaning up my inbox. What about you? Isn’t it time you addressed that overflowing inbox? Let me know how it goes!

You would think that a family that has a dishwasher really shouldn’t ever have to worry about washing the dishes . . . . right? But it seems like when you have an automatic dishwasher, Nobody thinks it is their job then to do the dishes. So after Somebody eventually loads up all the dirty dishes into the automatic dishwasher, Nobody still thinks that the job should be done by . . . Somebody. Who is usually Mom. Sometimes Dad, but around here, our Dad works at a job that takes him away from home for long hours and he really shouldn’t have to do dishes after all that. But since he likes to cook (and make HUGE messes in the kitchen!), he often does help out with washing the dishes and cleaning the kitchen on the weekends.

I lived a long time without an automatic dishwasher, and it seemed like the dishes actually got washed quicker and more often than once we got that built-in machine that was supposed to make our life so much easier. I guess because the perception is that since there is an “automatic” dishwasher, that the human beings who live in this house shouldn’t have to wash a dish. Or two. But that’s not how this works, they said, that’s not how any of this works!

It’s been a challenge lately trying to keep up with washing the dishes at our house, but that’s not because I hate doing dishes. I actually hate piles of dirty dishes just about as much as I hate anything else in a messy house. I don’t mind washing the dishes, and I love having a clean kitchen, with the counter tops washed down and everything all spic and span. But the rest of the family . . . not so much. You know what I mean.

It’s just that it doesn’t bother them as much as it bothers me. Or maybe it’s just that they don’t even notice. But when the piles start to spill out of the sink, and onto the counter, and eventually there are no more clean dishes in the cupboards, that’s when I simply CAN’T. STAND. IT. ANY. MORE. And that’s when I stop what I’m doing and shift into my drill sergeant persona. Mostly that’s been happening when I am distracted with other projects that have deadlines, like writing and editing, and my focus is on what’s right in front of me. The other time that those piles seem to take on a life of their own is at night.

I’m a morning person, so pretty much anything that gets done in a day that requires a significant amount of brain power or physical energy has to happen before 5:00 or 6:00 p.m. And since the rest of my sweet little family are all night owls, they think nothing of fixing up a seven course meal at 9:00 p.m after I’ve cleaned up the kitchen for the day. They’re doing better about cleaning up if they mess up the kitchen that late at night because they know I’m NOT going to do dishes (or much of anything else!) at that hour of the day. I’m just done.

Unfortunately what that means is, if for whatever reason those who created the Big Mess in the kitchen get distracted with a television program or reading a book or watching a movie and they “forget” to wash the dishes, the kitchen looks like the gremlins came in and stirred everything around with a giant wooden spoon. The worst part is when they don’t clean the yucky food leftovers off the plates or bowls, and it sits there overnight.

We’re making progress in this department (I know, your kitchen is NEVER a mess, so bear with me here . . . . ) I’m doing better at reminding them to rinse the dishes and put them in the dishwasher before they go to bed OR . . . . JUST. DON’T. MAKE. A. MESS. THAT. LATE. AT. NIGHT. If you are hungry before bed, make a peanut butter sandwich or eat a bowl of cereal, but please, please, please, don’t start making tacos, or fried chicken, or hamburgers (the grease! I HATE the grease!).

As I’ve been determined to focus on making our home a place of peace and comfort, I’m trying to balance my family’s tendency to have fun (which is a good thing!), and eat good food (which is also a good thing), and just hang out in their jammies watching Netflix and eating chips and guacamole, with the very real necessity of keeping our home clean, tidy, and rodent-free. It’s a never-ending task, but I’m committed to making this work for my family. So I start every day by making sure that I wash the dishes (if my sweet little family didn’t remember!), and make the bed, and brush my teeth. Then I’m good to go. To work. In my jammies at the computer.

What about you? Does your family ever leave dirty dishes in the sink? Didn’t think so. But if they ever do, remember that you will feel so much better about your day if you wash the dishes!

As much as I love the holidays, I’m always ready to get back to our regular routine. So I’m looking forward to launching in to a couple of new home organization projects this month! Here at the #HomeMattersParty, we have so many amazing bloggers who are sharing their favorite home organization ideas that I think I’m going to have to write down three or four and just get busy before I spend my whole day looking at everything and then I won’t get anything done around here. Let’s take a look at all of the creative inspiration here at the Home Matters Linky Party #167 . . . I’m sure you’ll find something that is just right for you and your family. #HomeOrganization #HomeMattersParty

Home Organization – After Holiday Routines + HM #167

As soon as I discovered this post by Amanda over at The Modern Nest Blog, I knew I had to check out her creative ideas! We have a pantry cupboard that we just finished painting a couple of weeks ago and I’ve been trying to figure out how to organize it so that it will be as useful as possible. I don’t have as many shelves as she has in her cupboard but ours is actually a closet so it is much wider. But part of it is where the water softener and hot water heater are, which makes them easy to get to if we need repairs, but they are kind of . . . . ugly.

We cleaned out all around the appliances and replaced the old linoleum with carpet squares (that was the easiest way to get a new floor down in there because we couldn’t move the water heater and softener out so we had to work around them). We painted the walls, ceiling, and both shelves along with the folding louvered doors a soft ivory so it all looks fresh and clean. The hallway just outside our kitchen where the pantry closet / cupboard is located is painted a light gray with ivory trim so it all matches and looks really pretty now that the painting if done.

We also have a water purifier / cooler that fits perfectly in the corner beside the hot water heater and there is still room for my brooms and mop hanging on a couple of hooks. And then there are the shelves. They are quite wide but there are only two of them, so I’ll have to find some baskets and jars that will make the most efficient use of the space. This post by Amanda has inspired me to get going on that project!

Taking time to make a weekly meal plan is something that I used to do all the time. But not so much lately. With my girls’ schedule being so unpredictable between dentist and orthodontist appointments, athletic practices, eye dr. appointments, jobs, and school events, we aren’t even always home at meal times! But I’ve made a commitment this new year to do better about planning ahead so that, even if we aren’t here right at supper time, there will be something ready when we all get home.

Meal planning actually saves a lot of time and it really saves money, so it is definitely something I need to get serious about, so when I came across this blog post at My Upstate Life, I decided to check it out and give it a try. I’ll let you know how I’m doing next week . . . so far this week I’ve only planned a couple of meals and the others were kind of spur-of-the-moment creations, and one night we went out for hamburgers. I’ll get the hang of this, I know I will!

I got a new desk for my birthday. The old desk was actually my really old sewing cabinet that we had fixed up so that I could use it for my computer and printer, but that was about all that would fit on it. I used it for several years and I was OK with it, but it was actually starting to fall apart. One of the wheels broke off on one side, and it was just getting really beat up from all the wear and tear of not only using it several hours every day, but moving it from one house to another, and then from one room to another to another. It really needed to be replaced so for my birthday we decided to get a corner desk that has room for both of my monitors and keyboard, as well as the printer and a lamp, and actually a bit of room where I can write or work on other projects.

So now that I have a new desk in the corner of our living room, which is my own little corner office, I’m in the process of organizing my work space . . . so this blog post grabbed my attention! I’ll be working on getting this little corner organized, along with the pantry closet just as soon as I get caught up with all of the writing projects that are calling my name! And little by little I’m also getting the craft / sewing room / design studio organized, so before long I’ll just be an organized Wonder Woman! That should be fun!

Now this is one area that I’ve been pretty good with most of my life! I’m really frugal so I pay attention to every penny in our budget, and usually we come out even at the end of the month. Not always, because unexpected things come up, like the $2,500 deductible on our home owners insurance that had to be paid before all the other repairs could be completed on our home after the flood. And unexpected trips to the doctor and hospital as we are now trying to figure out what our oldest daughter is allergic to . . . $733 worth to be exact, after all the insurance coverage. I guess we have a deductible there, too!

So our monthly budget just took a hit, and I had to juggle a bunch of stuff around, but so far we are keeping afloat. But I’ve frequently been a bit exasperated with all those budgeting gurus who have the perfect answer for everyone who is struggling financially. And I realize that what works for our family might not work for anyone else’s family, so in this blog post I share some basic principles that have helped me keep everything in order most of the time for our family finances.

If you are wanting to get started on a budget that works for YOUR family, check out some of my ideas. Who knows, they just might work for you and your family, too!

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I sometimes wonder how other people do it. I mean, how do other people pay all the bills (on time!), put the recommended amount in their “emergency fund,” feed the kids, and still have money left over for things like dinner and a movie. Well, of course, the first thing that comes to mind is that those people must have more money that we do. And that’s a very real probability. But there are just some people who have the ability to manage whatever amount of money they have and make it work for their family.

After years of reading all kinds of financial planning and budgeting advice, and trying this and trying that, and still finding that we have unexpected expenses (like the flood and the $2,500 deductible on our home owners insurance), and emergency doctor and dentist bills, and needing new tires on the car, and a few other necessities, I have come to the realization that all of the theories about budgeting in the world might be helpful, but there are always exceptions.

One of my goals this year is to do my best to be prepared for those unexpected events by attempting to build up that emergency fund of $1,000. Which wouldn’t have covered all of the “emergencies” we’ve had over the past three months anyway, but it would have helped. But that is tricky to do when the paycheck comes in and after the bills are paid (mostly on time!), there is only about $16.00 left over. Makes it hard to do much else, especially putting aside money for that ambiguous “emergency” that is looming on the horizon.

So I have gotten a bit discouraged with reading all the theories about budgeting, because as helpful as they are in theory, they don’t always work in the real world. If you are in a place where you’ve tried budgeting based on the rules and suggestions of those famous money management gurus, please know you are not alone. We’re doing our best, and some months are better than others, but sometimes when the kid needs a winter coat, it can be challenging to decide whether to buy the coat or buy groceries. Especially if you are TRYING to follow the advice of the professional budgeters and not use credit. But then sometimes you really have no choice.

Here’s what has worked for us – and it is probably not what will work for you – but at least it might be an encouragement to someone who is rather frustrated with all the stress that comes from money management.

In our family, there are two parents and two teenage daughters, one of whom is now driving and has a job away from home. That helps. When she wants a pair of ripped up jeans that cost $59.99, she can invest her own money in stuff that I couldn’t afford, even without all those holes in them. But the basics, like paying the mortgage and the electric bill, putting gas in the car and the car payment, the monthly orthodontist payment, life insurance, car insurance, etc. still add up even if we’re not buying ripped up jeans.

It helps that I was raised to be very frugal. The truth is, I wouldn’t pay $59.99 for a pair of jeans, holes or not, under any circumstances, including if we were millionaires. For starters, then, we are very frugal. (Hope Miss Holey Jeans gets that lesson one day!) But even so, there are times when there is just more need for dollars than there are dollars to go around. I’m doing my best to work from home, and I do work everyday, but not everything that I do here at home generates consistent income.

So basically, we are a one-income family. Most of the time we are doing just fine (see above for note on house flooding and insurance deductible), and this is how I’ve been able to keep things going even on weeks when it is a challenge to balance all of the needs with the real, actual dollars available . . .

1. I made a list of all of our payments. I included the day each payment was due and how much (sometimes I have to estimate, because we don’t know for sure on things like the utility bill, but I can guess pretty close).

MORTGAGE 1st of the month $******

CREDIT CARD 7th of the month $*****

CAR PAYMENT 10th of the month $*****

ORTHODONTIST 10th of the month $*****

UTILITIES 20th of the month $*****

LIFE INSURANCE 23rd of the month $*****

AUTO INSURANCE 24th of the month $*****

TRUCK PAYMENT 25th of the month $******

And whatever else is on the monthly rotation for payments.

2. Then, when a bill comes in (or there is an automatic withdrawal scheduled -which I HATE but some things like life insurance won’t let you do it any other way), I know which envelope to put it in. This is a bit like the Dave Ramsey approach of putting money in envelopes, which is actually a great plan if you can do it, but I kind of work backwards by organizing the bills into weekly categories. Like this:

JANUARY 6

MORTGAGE (set aside for the first of next month) $******* (The largest monthly payments are divided by 4 and put into the weekly budget. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t!)

Car payment $*****

Credit card $*****

Orthodontist $*****

JANUARY 13

MORTGAGE (set aside for the first of next month) $*******

Utilities $*******

JANUARY 20

MORTGAGE (set aside for the first of next month) $*******

Insurance $*****

Truck Payment $*******

January 27

House Payment $***** (DUE on the 1st of each month)

I write all of this out on my individual envelopes (or on a piece of paper that I clip to the specific bills that need to be paid each week / or bi-weekly for some people) that looks like this:

I’ve been doing this type of budgeting for several years, and it usually works. Depending on the latest “emergency” expenditures, I can usually set aside part of the monthly mortgage payment each week, and sometimes even set aside a little bit for the “emergency fund” savings account. But all of this is based on one, rather old-fashioned financial planning theory: when the money is gone, stop spending it!

Unfortunately for most of us, there are times when we do need to use credit cards. We try our best to avoid those kinds of situations, but when your house floods and you need to replace the floors and some of the walls, over and above what the home owners insurance offers, well, there you go. But we do try to pay off a credit card before we use it again. Another one of those good intentions that doesn’t always work in the real world. But we try!

Finally, after planning this out for every week of the month, I then schedule payments online to make sure I don’t forget and miss a payment. After the necessary payments are made or scheduled, then I look at what is left over and we plan for groceries, gas in the car, and maybe a family pizza night. “Extras” come along when I do a free-lance editing job, or teach a class, or sell something online, and then we might go out to our favorite Chinese restaurant or even be able to buy a new snow shovel. Or something else that we just can’t live without!

So you see, my budget probably is not the same as your budget, but it has worked for us for a long time. The bills always get paid (usually on time but not always), and we have a bit left over for groceries and gas in the car . . . and sometimes we even can put aside a few dollars for that elusive “emergency fund.” Until the dentist bill comes . . . but I’m trying, I really am!

I would love to hear how you budget for your family. I’m going to be working on this a bit more in the coming weeks to see if I can make it more specific, so if you are looking for ideas for your family budget, some of my ideas might be helpful. Works for us!

Hope you are having a good week and staying warm on this blustery winter days. Would love to hear from you!

As I got to thinking about re-evaluating my priorities and schedule for the coming months, it occurred to me that most of us women try to wear too many hats. Oh, I know, that’s not always something we get to choose. I remember thinking when someone (a man, I’m pretty sure!) told me that I just need to do one thing at a time . . . to which I replied something like, “If I could only do one thing at a time, I’d still be living in 1978!” Because if I only did one thing at a time that’s how far back I’d be in terms of accomplishing anything. Life doesn’t happen “one thing at a time,” so we are quite obligated to process many different projects, ideas, expectations, requirements, responsibilities, and obligations simultaneously.

Like right now . . . I’m in the middle of writing a blog post about how I’m planning to refocus on doing fewer things and I have to figure out a couple of other things today, all within the next hour. That’s life for most of us. And after writing the previous blog post about how virtuous I am going to be and re-evaluate all of the things I’ve got going on, I decided to get serious about counting my hats and figuring out if I can send a few of them off to the thrift shop. Just in case anyone else needs a new hat or two.

As I write this blog post I’m determined to find time to sit down and make a list of all of the things that I am committed to right now, and then make a list of everything that I MUST do, and then make a list of the things that I believe God wants me to do . . . . and then start cutting around the edges. Not too much at first, because that might be too painful. But if you are anything at all like me, I actually like most of the things that I’ve committed myself to. But there is only so much of me to go around, so something has to be put on hold, at least for a little while.

My list is going to take a few days to finalize, but it needs to be done. How about you? How many hats are you wearing? Can you get rid of one or two of them? I’d love to hear how you manage all the hats you wear every day.

I’ll be back to work on my list – as soon as I finish a couple of other things that are calling my name!

As I am working on updating, painting, and reorganizing my sewing room / design studio, I decided to make this inspirational printable that I can frame and put on my wall. I might actually do that BEFORE the project is complete, hopefully to keep me motivated not to give up when the project feels so overwhelming.

Do you have any projects that you are working on that just seem so HUGE that you sometimes want to just give up and go take a nap? Let this be a reminder to keep up the good work and be creative every day!